About me...

 

I was born as Maaike Franco in the murky month of November 1980 in the seaside town of Ostend (where the ferries used to run from). Squashed between an athletic brother and sister,  it seemed obvious that I would be the scrawny one keeping her nose in a book at all times.

I wrote my first book at the age of seven-and-a-half after a teacher told me off for writing a story that had 'too many words' and was 'too complicated' for my age and ability. This first star novel was never published but it sent me irrevocably down the path of the written word. Thank you, educational system - I will have to change my mind about you after all it seems.

Strangely enough, I went on to become a teacher myself, entertaining students with my stories and urging them to read and write whatever the f*** they like.

Meanwhile I cannot keep away from writing myself. Everything that comes my way - I try my hand at it and I love it. I have dabbled as a music journalist, travel writer, corrector, novelist, poet, songwriter, cartoonist, writer of children's stories - well, you get the drift. In my native Dutch as well as my almost-native beloved English.

 

A few things I have learned in thirty-odd years on this clump of sedentary magma. One, stories rule. They do. Two, never underestimate the power of words. Three, NEVER grow up. And I mean that.